At a time when most mares are in the breeding barn, Bacio Del Mist has posted the biggest win of her career to take out the Stayer’s Cup at Rosehill for Lee and Cherie Curtis.
The seven-year-old had endured a luckless campaign beset by wide barriers and missed opportunities but fortune finally favoured her in Saturday’s 2400m race.
Settling worse than midfield for Alysha Collett, Bacio Del Mist made her run towards the inside and outstayed fellow grey Mormona by a neck with Casual Connection running his usual honest race for third, another short neck away.
Lee Curtis said Bacio Del Mist had been trying hard and pointed to her fifth in the Epona Stakes (1900m) in March as a case in point after they had wanted to run her in the Manion Cup (2400m) on the same program but she was made an emergency and didn’t gain a start.
“She has just had no luck. Not so much with the barriers, although they’ve been horrible, but just missing out on runs in races,” Lee Curtis said.
“When she ran in the Epona, we had her in another race that day and she missed out by one, and she ran super in the Epona. Over the 2400 metres she would have run really well.
“She has had no luck and she has been running good races too. She is such a gutsy thing and so tough.”
Bacio Del Mist was having her twelfth run in a campaign that began in December and her Stayer’s Cup (2400m) triumph was her first in Saturday metropolitan grade.
While she will turn eight on August 1, Curtis said plans to retire her could be put on hold while she continued to race so well.
“The plan was to go through this prep and wind it up but the owners might want to race her for another twelve months,” he said.
“She is a marvel for a $30,000 yearling.”
